Quantifying adsorption-induced deformation of nanoporous materials on different length scales

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

Authors

  • Stephan Braxmeier
  • Christian Balzer
  • Florian Putz
  • Sebastian Busch
  • Nicola Hüsing
  • Gudrun Reichenauer

Organisational units

External Organisational units

  • Bavarian Center for Applied Energy Research, Wuerzburg, Germany
  • Materialforschung und Physik, Paris-Lodron University Salzburg
  • Heinz-Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum, TU München
  • Paris Lodron University Salzburg

Abstract

A new in situ setup combining small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) and dilatometry was used to measure water-adsorption-induced deformation of a monolithic silica sample with hierarchical porosity. The sample exhibits a disordered framework consisting of macropores and struts containing two-dimensional hexagonally ordered cylindrical mesopores. The use of an H2O/D2O water mixture with zero scattering length density as an adsorptive allows a quantitative determination of the pore lattice strain from the shift of the corresponding diffraction peak. This radial strut deformation is compared with the simultaneously measured macroscopic length change of the sample with dilatometry, and differences between the two quantities are discussed on the basis of the deformation mechanisms effective at the different length scales. It is demonstrated that the SANS data also provide a facile way to quantitatively determine the adsorption isotherm of the material by evaluating the incoherent scattering contribution of H2O at large scattering vectors.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number5
Pages (from-to)1404-1410
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of applied crystallography
Volume50
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2017